Monday

Apr 27, 2020 at 8:43 AM

Adam Schlesinger's partner has opened up about the Fountains of Wayne musician's final, heartbreaking moments before dying of coronavirus complications on April 1.

Alexis Morley detailed Schlesinger's COVID-19 battle in an agonizing-yet-inspirational, loving Instagram post Sunday alongside the last photo of the two on a gorgeous hike in upstate New York, taken March 15.

The Grammy and Emmy-winning musician, feted for his work on TV's "Crazy Ex Girlfriend," fell ill that very next morning, Morley explained. Schlesinger, 52, woke up at 4 a.m. with a high fever.

"I tried to keep him comfortable, nurse him back to health, as we waited for the fever to break," wrote Morley. "We were sure it would, just like any other crappy flu. He said, 'I’m ok. I have my Alexis.' "

A week later the condition had worsened, and Schlesinger had to be hospitalized alone, without Morley or any other visitors.

"We spent the night texting, making cute jokes, feeling optimistic. He kept telling me how much he loved me and thanked me for saving his life," Morley wrote. "The next morning he was intubated and I never got to hear his voice again."

Despite a 10-day battle to save the singer, Morley received a 3 a.m. call from the hospital with grim news: "He wasn’t going to make it. I asked if there was any way I could see him."

Morley wrote that the hospital made special arrangements to allow her to visit him inside the COVID-19 unit.

"It was a low-lit, grim, heavy place, the medical workers and I all hidden under layers and layers of PPE," Morley wrote. "But Adam looked sweet, peaceful, beautiful. I’m so thankful that I got to spend that one last hour with him."

Morley was able to connect to dear friends on her phone for a FaceTime goodbye to Schlesinger.

"I like to think he could sense us all there, but he was deeply unconscious," Morley wrote, continuing to add to her tribute in the Instagram comments section.

"Shortly after I arrived back at the house, Jordan, a male nurse who’d been so wonderfully compassionate in the covid unit, called to tell me that Adam had just passed, peacefully," Morley wrote, "He was holding his hand as it happened."

She described the next Instagram photo, the bright sun appearing through winter trees.

"It had been a dark, overcast day, but at that moment the sun came out for just a few minutes and lit up the entire sky," Morley wrote. "I love you so, so much, Adam."

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